Risky Boots
Risky Boots is the primary antagonist of the Shantae series. Risky is Shantae's nemesis and is known throughout the world for her wealth, power, and ruthlessness. Risky is the undisputed and self-appointed "Queen of the Seven Seas", and will caution and toll anyone who thinks otherwise. Capable, dominating, and deadly, Risky is unafraid to claim what's not hers. She commands an endless army of Tinkerbats, who follow her orders without question, building her weapons of war and scavenging the resources to make her schemes become reality. She is voiced by , who also voices Risky's nemesis Shantae. Biography ''Shantae'' In the first game, Risky Boots makes her presence known to Shantae when she and her Tinkerbats invade Scuttle Town. Shantae is able to protect the town, but fails to stop Risky from stealing Uncle Mimic's new Steam Engine. With her initial goal achieved, Risky then sets out to find the four Magical Stones so she can improve the Steam Engine and make it suitable for her goals. Risky is seen every time Shantae is about to fight a boss in each of the dungeons where the stones are located, commenting on how collecting all the elemental stones and implanting them with the Steam Engine will fulfill her goals of taking over Sequin Land. However, every time Risky finishes speaking she loses the stone because of the interference of the boss who hits her, throwing her off-screen. Later on, Risky disguises herself as a Guardian Genie of Bandit Town and manipulates Shantae into finding the fourth, even mocking her with taking in consideration a hair cut that would look awfully cute on Shantae. Later, Shantae finds the "Guardian Genie" outside the dungeon and wonders what is her name, to which she replies saying it's not important and proceeds to do a "belly dance" in order to open the dungeon. After Shantae manages to arrive to the fourth boss, she wonders why Risky didn't appear to try to steal the Twinkle Stone and proceeds to fight the boss. Afterwards, Shantae finds the "Guardian Genie" again outside and just before she is about to talk to her about her success with finding the Twinkle Stone, the "Guardian Genie" drops the disguise revealing herself to be Risky Boots the whole time and the pause screen appears as the whole set is stolen by Risky. The ruthless pirate then has Shantae tied up and taunts her for delivering the elemental stones to her and details on how the Tinkerbats will use the final complements with the Steam Engine to create an unstoppable machine to take over Sequin Land before finally leaving. Thanks to the help from the genies, Shantae follows Risky to her hideout on a solitary island, where a giant mechanical fortress protects Risky's ultimate power: the Steam-Powered TinkerTank. After encountering Risky, she tells she should have given up and details that the Tinkerbats are putting the final components to the TinkerTank just before pulling a lever that removes the floor where Shantae is standing, sending her face-to-face to the TinkerTank. Though formidable, the tank is destroyed due to its complete lack of weaponry, and an angered Risky is forced to fight Shantae herself, threatening to have her sliced to bits and not happy with that she'll dance on her innards. Risky has many attacks and it can be a difficult fight, as she takes damage during the battle she also gains a pair of other attacks. After being defeated, Risky goes into a villainous breakdown and tells Shantae that she will never leave at time before everything collapses as Risky escapes before the island explodes. ''Shantae: Risky's Revenge'' Risky returns as the titular main antagonist of the second game. Following Risky's defeat, Shantae's work as Half-Genie has been hard since all the creatures from Sequin Land want to battle her. Later at the Relic Hunter's Expo, Risky crashes in just when Mimic was going to present the lamp to the audience and makes off with that Mimic had just dug up. When asked by Shantae why she is causing trouble again, Risky says that Mimic's object is of great importance for her, but Shantae comments it is just a worthless lamp to which Risky replies it is actually something Shantae doesn't even know the problem what's in store and makes her escape. After walking to the east with no trace of her, Shantae fears Risky has escaped but in that moment the pirate appears behind her protected by her new invention, the Steam-Powered Tinkertub, which has to fight. Shantae only needs to hit the mouth of the ship when the barrel is exposed, doing this three times will defeat the steamboat. Risky admits Shantae has improved since their last battle, but claims that as long as she has the lamp she'll have the means to crush Sequin Land, and launches a last cannonball at Shantae, knocking her out in order to make sure she doesn't follow her and the Tinkerbats. As Shantae collects the needed to prevent the lamp from activating, Risky frequently appears to taunt and belittle the half-genie's progress. Once the third Seal is found, Risky has Mimic kidnapped thanks to Rottytops and her siblings who wanted in exchange a supply of coffee and in Rotty's case, Shantae's brains. However, Risky changed the offer to her benefit and leaves the trio with nothing they expected in exchange but some cash and a heartbroken Rottytops. In that moment, Shantae arrives and Risky blackmails Shantae to give the Seals to her in exchange of her uncle. With no other option, Shantae surrenders the Seals and is forced to fight Risky's steam-powered steamboat/robot. In order to hurt Risky, Shantae must hit the mouth when it exposes a barrel and if she does not attack quickly, Risky will start throwing barrels at her. After Shantae hits the barrel, Risky will jump into the background to launch cannonballs, some of which contain Tinkerbats. Sometimes the mouth will open to hurl an anchor and she will also shoot cannonballs. At this point being in monkey form its pretty necessary. Whether she does this move from the far right end or from the left corner, Shantae can dodge it as a monkey by walking closest to the ship without actually touching it. Shantae needs to hit the barrel four times to defeat Risky. After destroying the robot, however, Shantae is promptly stripped of her genie powers when Risky suddenly activates the lamp. Risky then commands the stolen powers to destroy its former master, which it does by manifesting as Nega-Shantae, Shantae's evil counterpart. Shantae defeats Nega-Shantae, but Risky taunts Shantae regarding how pointless was to give up her powers for the sake of the people of Sequin Land and threatens to have the last laugh the next time. Risky then escapes with the lamp and leaves the heroine with nothing but a hollow victory to show for her sacrifice, thus marking the first time Risky has succesfully won against Shantae. ''Shantae and the Pirate's Curse'' As Shantae struggles to adjust to life without her genie powers, Risky arrives and captures her in a trap bathtub, believing that Shantae and her friends stole her army and weapons. As Shantae denies such actions, Risky takes her to Mimic's lab where she shows her a Tinkerbat trapped in a cage. However, the Tinkerbat is soon being surrounded by a dark fog which turns him into what Risky calls a Cacklebat. After releasing Shantae and watching her defeat the Cacklebat, she gives her the Magic Lamp so that she can imprison the strange black fog. Risky explains that the Cacklebat is proof that her former mentor, the Pirate Master, is preparing to return by spreading a curse through Sequin Land, and that she needs to seal off his sources of dark magic to prevent it. As she has been stripped of her weapons, Risky needs Shantae's help to do it. Faced with a mutual goal, the two women agree to a truce and set off for the islands surrounding Sequin Land. As they adventure, Risky explains her past relationship with the Pirate Master: Risky had served on the Pirate Master's crew as the first mate, and took the Master's weapons and crew for herself after his defeat. She also reveals that when Shantae destroyed Nega-Shantae, the light magic that Risky stole from Shantae was consumed by the Pirate Master's evil soul and turned to dark magic in order to unleash his curse. Risky admits that she will stop at nothing to destroy the Pirate Master, which worries Shantae. After sealing all of the Pirate Master's sources of dark magic, Risky and Shantae travel to Lonely Grave Island with the intent to blow it up. However, the Pirate Master returns to life and captures Risky for revenge for stealing both his weapons and Tinkerbats. Shantae chases the two and tries to fight the Pirate Master, only for him order Shantae to give up the dark magic she had collected from all the Cacklebats in exchange for Risky's life. In the bad ending, if Shantae didn't kill all the Cacklebats, the fight with the Pirate Master will end prematurely as he escapes, and Risky runs off swearing that she'll destroy him herself even at the cost of her own life. Shantae can do nothing but hope that Risky succeeds... somehow. In the true ending of the game, the dark magic is instead turned into light magic and is reabsorbed by Shantae, giving her the power to weaken the Pirate Master while Risky runs to Scuttle Town and commandeers a long-range cannon from the Ammo Baron, which she uses to fully destroy the evil fiend. Afterwards, Risky and Shantae meet one final time on Lonely Grave Island, where Risky tells Shantae that she's not going to give up her pirate ways anytime soon, but somewhat compliments the half-genie's heroism by comparing her to her mother. ''Shantae: Half-Genie Hero'' Risky appears again in the fourth game, again as the main antagonist. In this story, Risky again launches an attack on Scuttle Town only to, again, be defeated by Shantae. However, Shantae eventually learns that the battle was a distraction in order to steal Uncle's plans for the Dynamo and then apply them to her own evil device, the Tinkerbrain, which she intends to use to conquer the Genie Realm. Again, there are two possible results to the confrontation, depending on the player's actions. If Shantae rushes to confront Risky in her volcano lair, the Bad Ending results, where Shantae must destroy the Genie Realm in order to save the world. If Shantae instead decides to wait and aid the Barons in Scuttle Town, Uncle is able to use the time to build a Magic Polarizer that can undo the damage done by the Tinkerbrain and save both worlds. ''Shantae: Pirate Queen's Quest'' Risky is the villain protagonist of the Shantae: Half-Genie Hero DLC Shantae: Pirate Queen's Quest, where the player can use Risky as a playable character. In this version, Risky tells the story from her point of view, taking rather outrageous liberties. The game starts the moment Risky corrupted Shantae into Nega-Shantae and escapes leaving the problem to Shantae's friends. Later on, Risky can be seen in a room taking a bubble bath being assisted by three Tinkerbats that can save the game's progress, give hints to the player and travel to the adventure. Risky will usually comment on how to complete her plan and check out the upgrades she can use for her items. By Risky's account, she succeeded in her machinations and killed Shantae, but was ultimately foiled by the incompetence of her henchmen, and because of that she is blown up along with the factory (All obvious lies.) Gameplay wise, Risky fights through the levels of the game using weapons and gear similar to the equipment used by Shantae in Pirate's Curse. ''Shantae and the Seven Sirens'' Risky Boots is confirmed to return in the upcoming Shantae and the Seven Sirens as the main antagonist yet again. ''Shantae 2: Risky's Revolution'' Risky was planned to be the main antagonist of the cancelled game Risky's Revolution.She appears in some screenshots and the beta demo, and is mentioned in the game's backstory. Her and the Tinkerbats had uncovered a new device called the Tremor Engine, and had planted a pillar in the middle of Sequin Land. By some means, the engine could make Sequin Land rotate around this pillar. Risky's purpose for this remains unknown. Although it was never completed, some of the graphics and ideas were retouched and recycled for Shantae: Risky's Revenge. ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' Risky Boots appears as a support spirit that starts the battle with a Bob-omb equipped. Her Spirit Battle is against Daisy on the Pirate Ship stage where Bob-ombs rain from the sky. Appearance Risky Boots wears a large pirate hat, with a skull symbol, which keeps her long hair in (her hair is actually just as long as Shantae's, as revealed when she disguises herself as a half-genie during the course of and also later during the final fight at the end of the same game, when Shantae deals her sufficient damage to make her outfit fall apart). She has a purple necklace with a gold pendant around her neck, a top that looks like the upper half of a skull, deep purple pants lined with a white rim that looks like a jaw bone, a belt which holds her scimitar and pistol. It is revealed in the second game that the skull pieces on her outfit are actually the skull of Risky's former mentor. Risky's sprite in the first Shantae consisted on red and black-colored clothes, she had her own eyes and sword red-colored including black hair, the artwork of the game has Risky with her usual and current color pattern though. Personality Risky Boots has shown to be cruel and cunning to her enemies, specially Shantae, this is evidenced by the fact she constantly attacks Scuttle Town and tried more than one time to enslave Shantae and all the genies for her own benefit. Aside from that, Risky is also greedy when it comes to treasure, priceless artifacts, and money in general given her role as a pirate. Risky holds an intense grudge against Shantae since the first time she was defeated by her and even has shown to dislike her and anything/anyone too "goody-goody" or law abiding, demonstrating her dislike for good things and preferring to stay evil instead. Despite this, she has shown to have some respect for her since battling with the Pirate Master for the fate of the world, although at the end Risky made a point with Shantae that both should take different paths as Risky is happy as long as she can be captain and promised that they'll be still enemies as such. Risky also likes to gloat and make herself known for her actions, even if these implicate destruction and chaos, the most known being the constant attack on Scuttle Town and its inhabitants. She is also sneaky and deceptive and has no problem with having to lie or manipulate others to get her way, just like she did back disguised as genie she tricked Shantae into collecting one of the stones for her only for Risky to capture Shantae and take the stones from her. Risky Boots can get very violent and even sadistic when she's enraged, one of her most sadist moments was in the first game threatening to slice up Shantae for destroying the Tinker Tank, and after being defeated by her, she decided to escape and let Shantae die on the ruins. Although in recent games she has shown to have more calm and morality in contrast to her first and second appearances, this does not stop however of keep doing misdeeds through Sequin Land, going as far as punishing her own crew when they don't obey her or if they try to defy her in any way as evidenced in Shantae: Pirate's Queen Quest, where she punished the Tinkerbats for invading a remote island without her and later on the same happened at the end after their failure at making the Dynamo work correctly, although taking in consideration it was Risky all along the narrator of Shantae: Pirate's Queen Quest it's presumed she actually didn't punish them at all. Powers and Abilities Though she prefers to leave combat to her machines and Tinkerbats, Risky Boots has proven to be a powerful and manipulative fighter (as proven at the end of the first game). In combat, Risky's main weapon is a large pirate's scimitar that she can rapidly slash with or throw like a boomerang, and she also carries a flintlock pistol that fires bullets. Risky can also dash around in mid-air for dive-bombing attacks and perform a brutal slide-kick when on the ground. She is also able to perform various acrobatic feats akin to par-cor, which seems to suggest superhuman levels of athleticism. She also appears to have a high level of endurance for a human, as she is able to take many hits from Shantae's magic, and still have enough energy to escape almost unscratched from her final fight with Shantae in the first game. Risky is also highly intelligent and surprisingly effective with technology, being able to conceive grandiose machines for her Tinkerbats to build and to operate them quite effectively. In Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, Shantae could upgrade Risky's items once she gathered them all going through dungeons. Later on Shantae: Pirate's Queen Quest, Risky herself could upgrade her own items as the story progressed, using a similar pattern that Shantae used in the previous game in order to complete 100% the game. Despite her deadly proficiency in the first game, Risky claims to be completely defenseless without her sword and pistol; in Shantae: Pirate's Curse, she was unable to combat a single Cacklebat, even with her kicking moves. Whether she truly felt defenseless or whether she was simply afraid of being possessed herself is unclear, although it's presumed she simply wanted Shantae to do the job for her. Quotes ''Shantae'' }} ''Shantae: Risky's Revenge'' }} ''Shantae and the Pirate's Curse'' }} ''Shantae: Half-Genie Hero'' and Shantae: Pirate's Queen Quest }} Trivia *Risky has defeated Shantae twice through the games, the first time was stealing her magic powers and use it to create an evil version of her during Shantae: Risky's Revenge and the second time was (seemingly) killing her off during their final battle in Shantae: Pirate's Queen Quest. However, in both cases Risky's victory backfired on her: **In Shantae: Risky's Revenge her actions by stealing Shantae's genie side and creating Nega-Shantae led to the latter getting destroyed, which caused Nega-Shantae's dark magic to spread in the air until it found the Pirate Master's tombstone, therefore, starting the events of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. **Later at the climax of Shantae: Pirate's Queen Quest, it's revealed that not only Shantae actually didn't die, but that even the Tinkerbrain wasn't foiled by her Tinkerbat's incompetence, it was just all Risky's POV of how the events of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero passed in order to refuse that Shantae defeated her. *The scene in Shantae: Risky's Revenge where Risky gives Shantae the chance to choose between her uncle and the Magic Seals is similar to the Pirate Master giving Shantae to choose between Risky Boots herself and the Dark Magic in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. Although, in the Pirate Master's case, Risky already knew Shantae would choose to save her life. *It's been theorized that Risky's skin color may be the effect of dark magic on her, given how Shantae and any other genie change their skin color similar to Risky's once corrupted. This was proven true and further explained in Shantae and the Pirate's Curse and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. *According to Matt Bozon, Risky was originally going to be a one-shot enemy as evidenced by the information above in a piece of concept art. This gives a hint that someone else would have been the main antagonist of the first game. In addition, she even had a more ghostly appearance given her status as a "pirate ghost" which isn't true in the main games as her appearance is the cause of the Dark Magic she's been given. *Risky is the only character in the entire series to have more dislikes for anyone/anything than everyone else, even surpassing that of the other antagonists. *At the end of the good ending in Shantae: Pirate's Curse, Risky tells Shantae that she reminds her of her mother, except that shorter and more annoying, thus hinting the possibility that Risky once met Shantae's mother and somehow is still around. 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